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Smart Showings May 2014

Karen Cakebread

MAY 01, 2014

Los Angeles

Making a statement proportional to its large scale, this travertine-encased residence, completed earlier this year, is as suitable for displaying art as it is for entertaining. A long, gated driveway leads to the expansive Bel Air property, which offers compelling canyon views. An entrance enhanced with a reflecting pool leads to a 34-foot-high central gallery topped by a full-length skylight. Here and throughout the structure, the abundant Southern California sunlight angles into the rooms and spotlights architectural and decorative features in a changing daily pattern.

For its owners, the home can provide a venue for varied entertainments. Besides the spacious living areas, a chef’s kitchen with Miele and Wolf appliances can be closed off or left open, depending on the event. The wine room is in view through the glass floor of the library. Elsewhere on the grounds are a guesthouse, an amphitheater, a swimming pool, and a three-car garage.

FACTS & STATS

SETTING: On a private 3.2-acre lot overlooking Hoag Canyon in Bel Air

HOME: The main house measures 8,588 square feet (including patios and a breezeway) and has a guest suite on the first floor and a master suite on the second. The 784-square-foot guesthouse features sliding glass walls and a kitchen

SETTING: On 500 acres overlooking the Pacific Ocean, near Sámara, a beach village popular for surfing and fishing

HOME: This private compound on the Nicoya Peninsula has a large villa and two smaller cottages, for a total of 11 bedrooms. All of the houses have spacious living rooms with vaulted ceilings, as well as kitchens, barbecue areas, verandas, and air-conditioning

SETTING: In a 15-story Park Avenue condominium building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side

HOME: The architect Costas Kondylis and the interior designer Geoffrey Bradfield created this 3,000-square-foot, four-bedroom triplex. An additional 600 square feet of outdoor space accommodates a Zen garden and a dining terrace devised by the landscaper Christian Duvernois. Many of the design elements have an Asian flavor, including the latticework that frames the outdoor spaces

HOME: This Rocky Mountain château is 12,976 square feet of warmth achieved from a variety of materials: Italian marble, Douglas fir and cedar timbers, and custom rockwork. The six-bedroom layout includes a master-bedroom wing with dual offices on the main floor, a guest suite with a kitchenette and living area, and a cinema and gym on the lower level. An additional 2,220 square feet of outdoor space includes a wraparound deck with a hot tub, a barbecue, and an adjoining sauna, and a 387-square-foot cabin with a fireplace provides slope-side shelter for waxing skis and drying boots

SETTING: On 1.7 acres, with 143 feet of beach frontage on Sydney Harbor

HOME: The Elaine estate has been owned by four generations of the Fairfax family, founders of the Sydney Morning Herald. Built in 1863, the Victorian mansion has seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms, a ballroom, and balconies with harbor views

PRICE: The estate is being sold via an Expression of Interest campaign and is estimated to sell for $80 million to $100 million AUD (about $70 million to $90 million US)

HOME: The architect Ulrich Franzen designed the modernist brick-and-glass-walled Dana House, which was completed in 1964 and is still in the hands of the owner who commissioned it. The 5,685-square-foot home has six bedrooms and four and a half bathrooms

SETTING: Overlooking Silver Beach, on the eastern part of the island, in a gated neighborhood

HOME: Twelve villas by the Belgian architectural firm Arcas are set for completion in late summer. A satellite development of a new Bugatti resort that will be fully operational in 2016, the villas range from four to six bedrooms in size, and each unit has a pool. The homes are offered sans furniture or furnished